Method of manufacturing shelving



J. 8. OCONNOR.

METHOD OF'MANUFACTURING SHELVING.

APPLICATION mmwua ls. lazo.

1,43 1,1713. Patented 06u-10,1922.-

Patented Oct. l0, 1922.

r v UNITED,@INES.

JOHN

n.. oooNNoaQgor iinoiie, "IIQLInoIs, AssIGNon Vrro LYONA lMETALLIC MANUFAGQ,

fLrUnI'NG CoM'rANY'or'nunon'ie, ILLINoIs, A conronA'rIoN on ILLINOIS. l

METHODv on viiIAixiu'racfiunrne;' sHnLvING.

-Appucatian fired Julie 1a, 1920. serial no. 396,129. l.

To allwhomitmaylconcemn.

'Be it known thatf-I, JOHN B. ,OOoNNoiu acitizen of'the'United States, residing yat Aurora,'in thecounty or-@Kane andState of 1 Illinois, have; 'invented' a certain -rnew 1 and useful Improvement lin `Methods of Manufacturing Shelving, of which thefollowing isimSpecification.n

M invention relates to shelving, and more partlcularlyI to methods Vof manufacturing Thexinventionf apthe shelves themselves. plies' primarily tothe production of" sheet metalshelves i having sidel andI end;y ilangesby. which they-may be stiftened.i and fastenedfto the' upright's.; Sheet :.inetal shelves having end flangesv are well known, but; heretofore;

the'- forming operation was always gauged fromthe opposite edge ofthe sheet. This gavegriseto several disadvantages. Y In the? -irst place,l the gauge was located at a con sidenable distance from the` lpointl of Vaction ofithe.formingvdie, especial-ly in operating on the larger sizes of sheets.r Second if vthe sheets were not accurately sheared or blanked,l the vflange would be inaccurately positioned and the shelf Would be out of true. One of the objects of my invention is to provide a method for eliminating these difficulties. Another object is to provide a method by which various stock sizes of shelves may be produced from the same form of die. Still another object 1s to provide a system of punching and fianging by which one row of holes may be utilized for fastening the shelves to the upright partitions and another row for gauging the sheet during the flange forming operation.

I accomplish my objects in accordance with a method which will be more readily understood by referring to the accompanyingflrawings in whichv' *igure 'l shows in full lines.Y a blank of the largest size obtainable from a given size of sheet. The dotted lines show a blank of Smaller size produced from the same size original sheet, thus illustrating how the same size sheet and same blanking, punching and forming dies may be employed for producing a smaller size shelf.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a portion of a finished shelf;

Figure 3 is a detail showing one corner of the blank;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectional view Showing the configuration of a portion of the` shelf afternthe Asame is completely formed.

Like numerals denote like parts throughout the several iviews. Itwillfbezfunderstood by those familiar with" manufacturing -conditions .and .shop

practice, especially in the iron and steel?. trades, that sheetsare Ausually shipped-from'. the ymill instandardsizes. Thispromotes economy in various Waysy and.. it.is-usually.

more .expensivezto order sheets ofspecial Size; from lthenmill than; it i isto .order standard4 r' sizes? .and -cut :away :the surplus g material. Accordi'ngto. mywmethodfl take afsheet l having.dimensionsssufficient to make a shelf offethe llargestgsize; wl'iichit is proposed to produce. I athen'fpunch holes 2 in it in rows parallel to the sides and ends of the sheet; the. holes being. placed at e ualdistancesl apart andthe rows being'at right' angles to each other..-.=-.;-- f. l

The .subsequent operations areperformed i by -utihzing the holes-,gin connection with... gauge -p1ns,.for gauglng'the sheet. Y One op#` eration-is to .notchou't the-corners, as at Ill, Figures l, 2 and 3. If a shelf of maximum size is wanted, nothing but this corner is removed, but if a sheet of smaller size is wanted, as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 1, then the sheet is sheared also. In any event, the operations are performed with the gauge pins in the holes, and hence the final configuration is bound to be accurate. Usually two pins are found to be suicient. After the sheet is completely blanked it is subjected to the action of the forming die or dies. One of these forms the lip 6 and another forms the flange 7, so that the appearance will be as shown 1n Figures 2 and 4.

During the forming operation, I place the gauge pinsV not in the holes nearest thc edge, but by preference in the holes next to them, that is, in the second row of holes. One advantage in this is that the gauges are thus close to the part of the sheet which is being congurated instead of at a distance therefrom, as in the previous methods where the sheet is gauged from the op posite edge. This produces a sheet in which the shearing, notching and forming will be perfectly accurate with respect to a nearby row of holes and by repeating the operation for all four edges of the sheet, the resulting shelf will be true at all four sides. In other words, the flanges will be positioned upright partitions: of the shelving (nots:

shown).

To give a concrete eXalnpleas to how this method may he worked out in practiceletv it be assumed' that the manufacturer proposes. to furn'sh shelves in lengths; varying, by three inches. He punches. the sheet. on three-inch centers', the outer row coming gr ofi ani inch from the' adjacent edge. Then, using. the next to outer row. for the gauge pins", the sheet is corner-notched and flanged,

the outer break l0 coming of anrinch from the. edge of the sheet and the'inner break 12 coming 1% inch from the' edge. This-produces a flange 7 which is one inch wide with the outer row of holes'half way between the-l upper and lower edges of the flange, It a smaller shelf is desired, three inches, ora

multiple of'three inches, is cut from an end:

or side or both. This reduction in the size of the sheet produces a corresponding reduction in the size of the shelf but necessitates no change whatever in any of the dies or ormers. Thus, by operating according to my method any standard sizev shelf may be obtained frolna singlev set of dies, the dies requiredA being only. those required for configurating one edge of the sheet. Furthermore, ,these dies although used separately for allsides offtliesheetproduce a 4shelfV which'v istrue" and accurate in l:every respect.

Having thus described my invention, what l2 claim as .newy andfdesire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. The methodzof producing 'flangedfrectangular sheet metal shelves consisting in perforatinga sheet to oim|-rows of liolesfparallel to a given'. sheet: edgeA with cor-V responding holes of the severaL rows orxn ing rows Iof holes; at rightganglesto the; diez rection of the i'rstrnws, using a given row of holesas sockets for receivingv -gaugel pins, and then vfl:ingingthe' edgeA adj acentto -and contiguous'with the" row of holes, used as'v gauge pint'soekets. x

2. lThe method of :producing{lan-gedA sheet metal shelves consisting' in punchingl the,`

Y sheet with a plurality-fof rows oft holes parallel toA a given` edge, using holes other reception vogauge. pins, and, langing` the'v sheet with a: flange wide enough to'bring the Vouter rowrof holes Within the". flange,

JOHN B. crecieron`- 60 than those nearesttorarsaid edge onthef- 

